ONE-TWO-THREE-GO!
Concert #8
Sunday, January 20, 2002 at
4:30 PM
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MARTHA
MOOKE
4- & 5-string electric violas w/ electronics & FX
Randolph
A. Hudson III, electric guitar
Fred Skellenger, surround-sound
live mix
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Somewhere in the vastness of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is NGC4535 or the Lost Galaxy... a sonic universe with excursions through the duo Bowing's "Cafe Mars", "Quantum" and the title work, "Lost Galaxy".
Surrounded
by speakers, they play electric 4- and 5-string violas, ebow guitars, multi-effects
& samples, all mixed live.
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MARTHA MOOKE is a pioneer in the field of the electric five-string viola. She has developed a unique musical voice by synthesizing her classical music training with extended techniques, digital effects processing and improvisation, while retaining the depth and soul of the instrument. She has received awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer and Arts International. Besides her catalog of works for solo and ensemble electric strings, she has composed music for theater and ballet and served as music director for national and international events. Ms. Mooke's diverse schedule includes touring, clinics and lecture demonstrations on electric strings and the use of electronics, extended techniques and improvisation. Enharmonic Vision, her solo debut CD, continues to receive wide critical acclaim. Bowing, her duo with electric ebow guitarist Randolph A. Hudson III, will release its long awaited CD early this year.
Ms. Mooke has performed and recorded with David Bowie and also played on Philip Glass' film scores of Kundun and Koyaanisqatsi. Other artists she has performed and recorded with are Moby, Enya, Lauryn Hill, Al DiMeola, John Cale, Anthony Braxton, The Orchestra of St. Luke's, Soldier String Quartet, Musicians Accord, Turtle Island String Quartet and Steve Reich. She has performed on The View, Regis Live!, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the David Letterman and Rosie O'Donnell shows. Ms. Mooke created and is producer of ASCAP's new music showcase THRU THE WALLS featuring composer /performers whose work defies categorization.
"With her white hair and blue five-stringed viola, Mooke is a striking figure, with a Terry Riley-ish array of electronic enhancements and a wider range of styles (from Cagean to minimalist to free jazz and beyond) than many improvisers can boast."
--- The Village Voice
RANDOLPH A. HUDSON III, born in Brooklyn, lives in Brooklyn, loves Brooklyn. Began performing and composing music in the mid-70s. He has performed extensively with John Zorn, Kramer, Ann Magnuson, Daved Hild, and Ralph Carney. He was a recording and touring member of Bongwater. Hudson currently composes and performs with Martha Mooke as the duo Bowing.
FRED SKELLENGER also lives in Brooklyn.
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sTRANGE qUOTE:
"Other
early engravings are more fantastic and less significant of cruelty. A common
one shows us a dozen cats, Angoras, toms, blacks and whites, seated before a music
desk on which the Solfege of Italy in oblong form lies open. The notes, however,
are replaced by mice, their tails indicating the crotchets and quavers. Teniers
drew a similar scene but added an owl as director and a monkey flute player. In
Andrew Lang's version of
"The White Cat" the Prince visits a luxurious apartment "upon the
walls of which were painted the histories of Puss in Boots and a number of other
famous cats. The table was laid for supper ... when suddenly in came about a dozen
cats, carrying guitars and rolls of music, who took their places at one end of
the room, and under the direction of a cat who beat time with a roll of paper,
began to mew in every imaginable key, and to draw their claws against the strings
of the guitars, making the sTRANGEST kind of mUSIC that could be
heard. The Prince hastily stopped up his ears; but even then the sight of these
comical musicians sent him into fits of laughter." Even in nursery rhymes
the cat has standing as a virtuoso. One of the most familiar speaks of "the
cat and the fiddle."
J. O. Halliwell gives:
"A cat came fiddling out of a barn,
With a pair of bagpipes under
her arm."
Carl
Van Vechten
THE TIGER IN THE HOUSE (1922)
Chapter Eight - The Cat in Music